by: Chris Sullivan
The hiring of Lewis appears to be smart, and was helped along by the fact that his brother is the Pro Personnel Director for Seattle. Lewis is a smart guy with a knack for defense and a background in the secondary. Here's Sando, speaking of his credentials:
The Steelers' defense ranked among the top 10 all four years Lewis was
coordinator. When did the Seahawks last hire a defensive coach able to make such
a claim? Perhaps you can think of one. I cannot. The Giants' defense jumped from
28th to 12th with Lewis as coordinator.
Lewis was also an excellent cornerback himself, a clear area of focus for him (which is, of course, pretty fitting considering the hire . . .). He was the 11th overall pick in 1983 and was an excellent DB the three years he played in the league before his career was ended by an unfortunate neck injury. He was the D-backs coach at Southern Methodist U before returning to his alma mater--U Pittsburgh--to lead their DBs. In 1995, he was hired by the Steelers to coach their defensive backs where he was eventually promoted to Defensive Coordinator in 2000. He lasted four seasons there before moving to the Giants for three years as their DC, before his conservative playcalling cost him his job. The last two seasons, Lewis has coached the DBs in Carolina with decent but not great results.
Mora has assembled an incredible defensive coaching staff--Monte Kiffin's right hand man Casey Bradley at DC, Dan Quinn on the D-Line, and now Tim Lewis stepping in for the new Head Coach with the DBs. It remains to be seen whether all of these men will work together well, especially on the side of the ball for which Mora will basically be calling the shots anyway. We've either got something great on our hands or a recipe for in-fighting. ~END~
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